Dr. Jenna Muray de López

I am an anthropologist specialising in reproductive health matters, maternal embodiment, violence and forms of power in health systems and sensory ethnography. I am currently a lecturer in Humanitarian Studies at the University of Manchester, UK.

My overall interests are reproductive and sexual health, gender, personhood, kinship and everyday forms of violence. My research region is principally, though not exclusive to Mexico. I am also interested in the joys and challenges of #PhDparenting and #ECRparenting and how this impacts upon research choices.

I completed my PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester in 2016. My thesis entitled Becoming (M)other: Political Economy and Maternal Transition in Urban Chiapas is an ethnography of the transition to motherhood in a low-income neighbourhood in South East Mexico. Overall the thesis links themes of community, relationships and gendered personhood to broader discourses of global health, political economy and modernity.